I'm confused :? What this 'water' that is being discussed? What is it used for in the process of rendering wax and what is it besides...water? Thanks for any explanation.

Our system is foundationless so we primarily harvest frames of whole honey comb. When we need to render wax, such as when we crush and strain some, the left over honey-laden wax is always left for the bees who clean it up pretty quick. Then we just melt the cleaned wax down in a slow cooker and pour it into molds for later use. We don't add 'anything' else to the process, material wise, other than the wax.

Are we missing some important step?

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I was a bit confused myself but here is what I think we are discussing :

You and I crush strain and then leave wax for B's to clean. They are cutting caps off with knife and spinning comb which is reused, then boiling caps in water. When cool they have wax on top and, "Thin" ,honey, which they feed back to B's. Cheers,Drew

If you search for SKEP on this website there is a whole series on how beekeeping was done over in southern Europe. They distinctly say that they take the water used in melting the wax and feed it back to the bees.Jim

I agree. The boiling will pasteurize the water. But I would think one would want to use it immediately for fear of it spoiling. I wonder if giving cappings to B's to clean first might be more efficient all things considered.Cheers,Drew

I bottled a couple of jars of wax water last year just to see what would happen and how long it would last. I looked at it about a month ago and opened it up to smell it. I was amazed it hasn't changed from when I put it in the bottles. I did have 1 jar that had mold on it within the first month and I tossed it. I really expected it to ferment real bad but so far it hasn't. Boiling may have helped.Jim

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Seems like some of you folks are working too hard for your clean wax IMO. I'm leaving the job to the bees, they are much better at it than I ;) but thanks for all the explanations.

I don't feel there is anything wrong w/ feeding the 'water' back to your bees as long as its done asap. Bees sometimes consume some pretty nasty stuff (cat litter) and wax water must be at the bottom of any list of hazards.

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